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“Why should I?” His eyes crinkled in seeming amusement, even as they lingered on my arrow. “You have no right to ask me anything. What I’m after does not belong to you.” One of his hands unclenched briefly, revealing thick scars winding across his palm, dark ridges of raised skin glossy with blood.

A moment’s distraction. My head snapped back to him, too late—he was already springing toward me, his axe swung high. I spun aside, releasing my arrow as he dipped back, the shaft whizzing harmlessly over him. As his axe flashed before me again, I darted away, twisting out of reach as his blade sliced a stray lock of my hair, scattering it like shorn grass. A second later and I might have been cleaved apart.

A shiver shot down my spine, the bowstring biting into my fingers as I drew another arrow, releasing it at once. Lightning hissed, scorching a path through the air as it plunged toward him. Something shimmered across his body—a shield—just as my arrow struck. Veins of white light crackled across the barrier. As it fractured, his energy surged forth to seal the crevices. Drawing back his arm, he hurled his axe at me, spinning through the air in a silvery blur. I dropped to the ground, pressing my cheek and palms into the powdery earth. The axe whistled over my body, slamming into the trunk of an osmanthus tree, petals scattering down like rain. As I rolled away and sprang to my feet, his weapon twitched before jerking free and plunging back into Master Gang’s grasp. Light sparked ominously from his hand as another arrow formed between my fingertips, already soaring toward him—even as he swerved deftly, the bolt vanishing into the night.

“How many times can you do this?” His tone was pleasant, almost conversational.

“As many as it takes to kill you.”

Sweat beaded my skin as I grasped my energy. He swung at me again, but this time, I held my ground. Magic surged from my palms in glittering coils of air, binding him fast. With a flick of my hand, he was flung against the ground, the back of his head striking a rock. A groan spilled from his throat as his eyelids fluttered shut, his axe falling from his grip. I approached cautiously with an arrow drawn, my nerves jangling. He seemed too strong to be felled so easily, and I had been taken in by his pretense before—

A gasp broke the silence. “Master Gang! Are you hurt?” Ping’er cried from behind me, rushing to where he lay.

“Ping’er, get back!”

I leapt out to block her path—too slow—as Master Gang’s eyes flicked open. He sprang up, seizing her arm. As his axe flew back into his grasp, he wedged its monstrous blade against her neck.

“What are you doing?” As Ping’er struggled against him, he tightened his grip, the edge slicing her skin. She froze at once, her chest heaving.

“Let her go.” I drew a deep breath, quashing the urge toward recklessness.

“Drop your bow and step back,” he warned me. “Let me leave, and no one will be harmed.”

“What will stop you from killing us then?” I demanded.

“I give you my word.” He spoke as if it were worth anything, as though he had not come to our home clad in deceit.

As I hesitated, his weapon dug into Ping’er’s flesh, a dark trickle of blood streaking across her pale robes. A strangled sound slid from her throat, though she remained deathly still.

“Hurt her again and you’ll regret it tenfold,” I said in my most menacing voice. “I need no weapon to make you pay.”

His teeth gleamed as his lips parted. “Of course. I would not dare take on so renowned a warrior.” A hint of derision glazed his tone.

I stifled my anger, letting my bow fall to the ground. At once, he shoved Ping’er at me and dashed away. As I caught her, a cloud swept down, bearing him into the skies.

I would have given chase but Ping’er gasped, clutching at her neck. Her palm came away wet with blood as she dropped to the ground. My stomach lurched as I crouched down beside her, folding her icy hands between mine. I released my energy to heal her wound, the torn flesh closing into a thin white line. Clumsily done, but there was no one around who might do better.

Ping’er groaned as she rubbed her temples. “Xingyin, what happened? Why … why did Master Gang do that?”

I frowned. “I don’t know. He is a liar and a thief.”

As she pushed herself up, something fell from the folds of her yellow robe—an oblong pearl hanging from a thin gold chain. It shone with inner fire, almost like that of the dragons’ pearls, but without a trace of their immense power. Had she always worn this? Had it been concealed beneath her garments all this time?

“Ping’er, what is this?” I brushed a finger along the pearl’s lustrous surface, warm to the touch.

Her face clouded over. “This formed the day I left my home. For Southern Sea immortals, only the tears sprung from our deepest emotion transform into pearls.”

“Do you miss your family?” A thoughtless question, a foolish one. Of course she did, though Ping’er had never returned there, not once in all these decades.

A brightness surged in her eyes, which she blinked away. I turned aside, giving her time to herself. Something glittered among the blades of grass—a laurel seed. I picked it up, rolling it between my fingers, its cool, hard surface familiar to me, yet it was the first time I held it untethered from its branch. A pulse of energy grazed my skin. Why had Master Gang wanted this? Why had he gone to such lengths? My gaze darted to the laurel, its trunk riddled with deep grooves as though it had been clawed by some beast, and smeared with a dark liquid. Was it his blood? Had he hurt himself while chopping the tree?

A woody fragrance suffused the air, a lustrous golden sap seeping from the crevices to spill over the bark. The edges of the splintered wood lengthened, braiding together till they merged seamlessly once more. My gaze drifted upward to the laurel seeds that glistened like silvered frost, peeking between the leaves. I had always thought them beautiful. Precious and rare. Yet a coldness shrouded me as I wondered what secrets they concealed within their shimmering depths.

In the late afternoon light, the laurel gleamed like a pillar of ice. I ran my fingers down the bark, as smooth as marble—as though it had never been ravaged by the axe, as though I had imagined it all.

“Is this where you spend all your time?” Liwei asked as he approached.

I grimaced. “It was where I spent last night. Unplanned.” Without delay, I told of Master Gang’s attack.